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Posts Tagged ‘ErieBlogs.com’
Erie Observer authors to ignite ‘rich conversation’
August 31st, 2010 
joel I’ve recently hooked up with ErieBlogs.com’s Mike Richwalsky and his business partner Richard Zmijewski, along with Peter Panepento of GlobalErie.com to help facilitate access for Erie businesses to advertise their wares to the thousands of readers our collective blogs touch.
The first effort of this network is the Erie Observer, a weekly e-mail news blast that lands in your inbox on Wednesdays. The first arrived last week, and readers are getting excited. Mike and Peter agreed to give our P&T community the inside scoop on this new venture:
P&T: The idea of the Erie Observer had to come from somewhere…how did the concept come to life?
Peter: This is something I’ve been wanting to do ever since we started GlobalErie three years ago. I believe that you can’t build a good online community with just a blog or a Web site. You need to be able to reach people in a number of ways — online, through e-mail, and through social networks. And e-mail has been a missing piece for us — largely because I haven’t had the time myself to get this off the ground. The idea of being able to do Erie Observer in partnership with ErieBlogs means we can build a much richer conversation since we’ll be engaging people from both of our audiences. We can pull in people who have relationships with both Web sites and, if we do it well, we can get them to interact more on both sites. It’s about strength in numbers. And it’s also about being able to make the most from limited resources. Neither I, nor Mike and Richard from ErieBlogs, do this full time. So if we can share the load, we can accomplish more.
P&T: How has been the reaction to the Erie Observer since the launch last week?
Mike: Good, so far. We’ve had good reactions via email, a good number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Maybe the most important metric is that more people signed up after we sent out the first issue, which means word is spreading. I think it helped for people to get a taste of what we want to do before they subscribed. Now that they’ve seen the first issue, they know what to expect and will sign up.
Posted in New Media 
Tags: Erie, Erie Observer, ErieBlogs.com, Facebook, GlobalErie.com, Mike Richwalsky, Peter Panepento, Richard Zmijewski, Twitter 
No Comments »Blue Streak’s last hill for Pepsi Refresh win
August 27th, 2010 joel 
Pepsi Refresh Project
I can’t imagine that other local projects across the country get the type of local media attention that Conneaut Lake Park and the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation before them have received in their quests for Pepsi Refresh votes and grants.
A quick Google of “blue streak pepsi” found articles from all over the region from blogs and news sites including Youngstown and Pittsburgh as well as Erie and Meadville. ErieBlogs.com has been running a daily vote reminder, and the TV stations in town mention the CLP’s efforts to win a Refresh grant very frequently.
Going into the last weekend of voting, the supporters of the renovation of the classic wooden coaster the Blue Streak have made the cause continue to be #1 in the nation for the $50,000 category. They are using not only local media, but strong social media efforts such as a Facebook page to fuel the fire.
Being in the top position attracts voters seeking votes for their own proposals, but also a few detractors. However the rancor is self-policed and all in all, support is strong and positive.
To help the Blue Streak successfully sweep into the station and finish the voting competition well, you can go here. Remember you press “Vote For This Idea,” sign in through Facebook or your e-mail address, then press “Vote For This Idea” again.
Poll: is the Erie ad market resurging?
July 19th, 2010 joel When we asked P&T readers what locally sourced online news product they used most, exactly half said that they most often read local portal ErieBlogs.com for Erie news. In second was the ETN’s GoErie.com, with the three TV station sites polling less than a quarter of the readership combined.
We just entered the third quarter of 2010, and there seems to be some signs of optimism and increased revenue in the Erie ad market. It could be that there is real consumer activity out there, or maybe retailers and service providers have enough of a cash cushion that they can now reinvigorate their brand.
Or I could just be Pollyanna
What do you think? In addition, I would love to hear some anecdotes from the sales, production, and account manager folks about the types of deals out there, leaving the names out to protect the innocent.
On a scale of 1 to 4, how's Erie's advertising climate doing going into the 2nd half of 2010?
- 3: We have made modest gains and are definately ahead of last year (40%, 6 Votes)
- 2: continues to be challenging, no real gain from a year ago (27%, 4 Votes)
- 1: it's terrible. We have yet to see the bottom of the ad depression. (27%, 4 Votes)
- 4: Erie advertising is back, and we are set for one of our best years (6%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 15
Loading ...Poll: where do you go online for Erie news?
July 5th, 2010 joel Folks who responded to our P&T poll about the potential Hamot merger with UPMC were split, with over 40% feeling that the health system was dropping the ball when it comes to the public relations and communications efforts over the merger. About another third said that it was too early to tell, with a quarter saying that Hamot was doing just fine with getting its message out there.
This week we want to know where you get your news online. So many of us now have iPhones, Androids, and Blackberrys and never have to wait until the morning paper or the 6 o’clock news to get up to date on what’s happening in Erie. However, the quality of the websites for those who originate local news content vary greatly, from quite good to downright poor. And I would add that smartphone compatibility for Erie’s news sites is quite lacking, with only ErieBlogs providing a mobile version of their site at all (along with Press and Tower, of course).
So, what say you?
Which online Erie news site do you use most?
- ErieBlogs.com (50%, 32 Votes)
- GoErie.com (27%, 17 Votes)
- YourErie.com (14%, 9 Votes)
- WICU12.com (6%, 4 Votes)
- WSEE.tv (3%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 64
Loading ... Posted in Polls Tags: Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Erie, Erie Times-News, ErieBlogs.com, GoErie.com, Google Android, Hamot Medical Center, UPMC, WFXP, WICU, WJET, WSEE 3 Comments »Erie bloggers sure to benefit from WordPress 3.0
June 19th, 2010 joel Big news coming out of the open-source software world: WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” has been released.
Before you jump to the conclusion that this release is only important to pocket-protector wearing code geeks living in their parent’s basement, think again. Nearly very major blog listed on ErieBlogs.com and not hosted by Blogger/Google has the WordPress engine behind it, including GlobalErie.com, ErieBlogs themselves, and Press and Tower.
What the upgrade to WordPress 3.0 means to you the reader is more reliability, greater security, along with cool apps will be available to you.
What it means to bloggers and web developers, is mind blowing:
Deep Background for August 22-28, 2010
August has turned into a time of significant change for Erie’s media.
Long-term TV personalities have flown the market, the newspaper has unequivocally called out County Councilmen and women based on their support of the proposed Community College, the Citadel group experienced a resurgence in Erie’s radio ratings even Connie Media’s #1 station extends its lead, and Erie’s top new media properties join together to further connect their/our readers.
We are covering it all in the coming days after this lengthy hiatus. Meanwhile you can spout off on anything media topic you desire in this open forum. Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or tweet @pressandtower.
Embrace the chaos!